Steve Faulkner

Hi Henry,
Yeah you live in a beautiful part of the world and definitely improving. I drove down to Dartmoor last Saturday and on the way through Worcester and Gloucester shire, I was really impressed with all the solar panels each side of the A roads and M5 motorway. There was a real vibrant feeling about the area. Miles of orchards and sun generated energy and then at Bristol all the wind turbines. So much better than my home in the concrete jungle.

Ha yes I can sympathise entirely. For me the wild places have a special attraction and living an off grid existence is my ultimate goal. I'm very lucky, twenty years ago I met and later married my wife. A woman from a very different world to mine, she was from a Punjabi farming family, but found herself growing up in a Northern Industrial city surrounded by concrete and factories. Thankfully our life together has rekindled her love of nature, growing and cooking our own food and living life as it is meant to be lived. If we never met another likeminded soul, we at least have each other. I truly hope Neil that you find that soul mate and that you grow your food forest together.

Hi Neil,
That's a shame, I love Scotland and I would of thought that Permaculture would go down a storm in your part of the world. I guess I'm lucky because other people have done all the hardwork where I'm hoping to settle. Totnes and Bristol are not too far away and many other nearby areas are looking to reinvent themselves with the 'Transition Movement' and greener living. The village I want to live in was originally set up many years ago to be a 'Utopian' model of agrarian living. It failed, but the original inhabitants attacked the rocky acid moorland soil with ploughs rather than wooing it with Permaculture.

What are the main difficulties in getting people to take onboard Permaculture where you are Neil?

Hi Katy,
Yeah that is an idea...Although so far on my allotment site (twined with the Gaza Strip) I'm considered a bit of a nut. It seems that everyone else uses 'Round Up' and 'Kurtail' weed killers like cheap aftershave and they rotovate the hell out of the soil. I have bark chipped over a couple of layers of cardboard and weed suppressant membrane on the two plots I have, I also use builders dumpy bags as raised beds. This gets the other allotmenteers into a fine frenzy, although by gardening in this way, I'm keeping the rampant Marestail at bay.

I would love to set up a Transition style group where I live, but experience has shown me that my neighbours just don't want to know, they want to live plastic lives and eat plastic food whilst watching brain dead TV.

Where I want to live and where I spend every spare moment (a little village on Dartmoor) the people love the idea of food forests and self sufficiency. Some folks have even asked me to give talks in the village hall on Permaculture. I have travelled a lot over the years and small communities in the middle of no where, I feel are a great deal more responsive to natural systems. Many of the people I meet moved away from the cities so that they could live simpler lives. I'm planning to do the same, but until that happens I will try to make some city converts.

Hi Sam,
Thank you for the warm welcome. I've just started the Soil module of the course and it is really interesting indeed. However I'm a bit worried about the course because I'm 46 years old and it has been along time since I did anything educational. Also as I research I tend to go off on a tangent and it takes me an age to get back on course. A bit more self discipline and I should be okay I think.

Where I am at the moment is a bit of a Permaculture black hole so I'm desperate to be amongst 'Permie folks'.

Hi All,
I'm based in the West Midlands, but I also spend a lot of time on Dartmoor, Devon. I intend to move down to Dartmoor in the next couple of years as I feel that with the 'Transition Movement' developing in the South West of England it's the place to be! I would be interested to meet up with fellow Midlanders and also folks from the South West. Also anyone doing the online PDC Course with Patrick Whitefield Associates.

Thanks Steve.F

Hi All,
I found this website through Youtube and a TED talk Paul Wheaton did about rocket stoves and energy saving. I'm presently doing an online PDC Course with Patrick Whitefield Associates so this forum has been a great find....very informative.

Thank you.